Speed Paint Challenge

Lately, I've been contemplating on how speed painting might help me develop into a stronger miniature painter. When I attended ReaperCon, I had the privilege of picking the brain of Derek Schubert, miniature painter, sculptor, and speed painter extraordinaire. Sometime soon I need to write a blog post about the totally awkward (on my part) yet inspiring experience. I've wanted to write about it since early May. Stay tuned for that!

Since then, I've realized that there is no magical element or secret to speed painting. In fact, I firmly believe that it's all in the approach. The more preparation there is, the less likely you'll need to repaint sections of the miniature due to impulsive and/or poor decisions (mostly regarding color). In my opinion, speed painting is most successful after thoughtful and clever planning. It doesn't take much, and the initial thought that you put in will definitely show. I truly believe that Derek Schubert can analyze a miniature and "see" the final application of colors coming together on a finished miniature before he even picks up his paint brush. The man just doesn't make mistakes. Again, I digress!

My first speed painting endeavor was a failed attempt because I just didn't plan well. I picked colors I liked, and since I had a hard time narrowing them down, I attempted to use them all. I started slapping paint on the miniature, focusing only on the speed in which I applied paint. I didn't want to take time to layer colors for smooth blending, so I didn't thin down my paint. Once I realized my mistakes, it was too late. My alternatives were either repainting sections while building unwanted chunky textures or rethinking the entire color scheme. It was frustrating. In the end, I named him Skittletor after the candy with the slogan "Taste the Rainbow". Skittletor looked like he lost a fight with an angry color wheel. Red, brown, orange, red, teal, navy blue-- he had it all. While I don't consider him a painting success, I learned some valuable lessons in the process.

I found I prefer very tight color schemes. In the past, I tried to use more colors in the hopes that it would result in a more dynamic miniature. Instead, I like using one or two bright colors and a few neutrals. It keeps the focus in places I want to highlight, and having only one or two main colors keeps other parts of the mini from competing for attention. In addition, I'll use different shades of the same color in several places on the miniature to create an overall visual unity.

I also fully admit: I struggle with metals. Despite looking up real metal image references, I find it difficult to find where the light reflections are supposed to fall when considering the light source. I think using metallic paints are an easy way around this, however, I find the final effect highly distracting when compared to the matte paint finish on the rest of the mini. Any highlights I paint on matte surfaces are often upstaged by natural light reflections in the metallic paint that are beyond my control. Because of that, I try to avoid painting metal when speed painting-- at least for now. My speed painting will involve honing skills and finding ways to apply them more efficiently, not attempting to solve my most difficult painting barriers... which brings me to the Speed Paint Challenge!

Recently a Twitter friend & fellow miniature painter took my Genasi Warden speed paint exercise and turned it into a personal challenge. He used the same Reaper Bones miniature with similar paint colors-- he did a great job given only 2.5 hours! I decided to continue the fun and invited him to join me in a #speedpaintchallenge with a new Reaper Bones miniature and we agreed to these guidelines:

Speed Paint Challenge Rules

• Colors: 6 earth tones, 2 neutrals [+ 1 metallic if needed]
• Time Limit: 4 hours or less
• Miniature: Elquin, High Adventurer · Reaper Bones #77092 ($2.49)
• Deadline: next Miniature Monday : September 1st, 2014

Here's my chosen color scheme:

Reaper paints shown [L to R]: Linen White, Pale Green, Viper Green, Pine Green, Muddy Brown, Golden Shadow, Golden Highlight, Brown Liner

We'll both feature our results via Twitter and I'll include my process in next Monday's blog post. Let the speed painting begin! 

Taking Pictures

I have a lot to learn when it comes to taking decent miniature photos. I know it's one of the most important things to get right-- why spend the extra time painting display miniatures if you can't take decent pictures of them? They're difficult to photograph since the miniature scale is so small and the details are even harder to capture with an average camera phone. I've seen various set-ups of small studios with camera tripods and light boxes-- though the professional-grade equipment is a considerable financial investment. I've also seen home-made light boxes and economical solutions that seem to yield quality photos that fit the needs of most painters.

While images of the most-recently-completed Troll Axer mini are posted here, I have a long way to go before I can photograph them with perfect diffused lighting, etc. So far, I've been taking pictures with awkwardly-placed desk lamps, scrapbook paper backgrounds I found at my local Hobby Lobby, and my iPhone4. Since I've practicing new & different techniques as I build on my experience, that's been totally acceptable. However, it's time I thought about investing in a proper camera.

I gave myself a goal of painting & blogging consistently for 6 months (I started April 2014), and only then will I allow myself to start looking a decent camera. It's the next practical step and I know it will motivate me to commit the time needed for bigger projects & display-quality miniatures. In the meantime, I'm focusing on speed painting to learn how to paint faster and smarter!

Troll Axer • More photos here 

Dragon Age II

I haven't painted since Monday. I feel guilty. What have I been doing you may ask? Watching Twitch. As much as I was opposed to Twitch in the beginning, I'm now kind of obsessed. I watch it while I paint and I've really enjoyed Azure's channel. It's a good-sized following so the chat isn't out of control and the broadcaster is really involved with his viewers. Recently, he started streaming Mass Effect 3, a Bioware RPG series which has been extremely popular over the past few years. I personally love Bioware games. I played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic so many years ago that got me hooked on the BioWare franchise. Watching Azure play ME3 made me want to go back and replay one of my favorite game series-- Dragon Age. Since there's been so much buzz about the upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition game release, I decided I'd pop the Dragon Age II disc into the XBOX 360. 

While I usually play a mage or ranged-weapon characters, I decided to try something I've never done and play a rogue character. As far as personality, I'm usually a straight-and-true, goody-goody Paragon in BioWare games. I always do the right thing throughout the quests & stories. I always just felt too guilty when I role-played a jerk character and hurt other people's feelings. Yes, it's true, I feel bad even when I hurt fake people's feelings with my fake character's responses. In my first play-thorugh of Dragon Age 2, I was a goody-two-shoes Mage. However, I've decided to finally try something new. I'll play my newly-created character as an impatient, practical, sarcastic woman. (I'm also going to crush Anders the second he starts to flirt. Seriously, I have no sympathy for that guy). My character will also have a somewhat-unhealthy obsession with moody Fenris. I'm liking this plan already. 

For those of you who are less familiar with BioWare RPGs, the games give you dialogue response options throughout the storyline. The available responses usually fall into 3 categories: Nice, Sarcastic, or Rude. The player's choices will affect the course of the story and  certain responses with different characters will open and/or close doors throughout the game. That concept alone makes these games attractive because of the high replay ability. I remember the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books that were so popular in the early 90s-- it's basically like that but better! 

One of my favorite parts of BioWare games is the character creation aspect. As with tradition, I attempt to design a female player character that looks like me. It's not everyone's preference, and I like to indulge in a bit of narcissism in this regard. Dragon Age II face options are varied, though I find it's hard to find an exact match for my own big, oval head. The character inevitably turns out cuter. Oh well. Without further ado, meet "Mocha Hawke":

Mid-character creation

Yep, I'm pretty happy with how she turned out!

Last night I drank wine and played this until 3:30am. Needless to say, today's been a bit rough...